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Comic-Con 2010 is finally over, and we've got the blisters, sore throats and random swag to prove it. But Comic-Con is all about news and surprises, of course, and this year's convention had plenty in store. From the reveal of the 'Avengers' cast to the announcement of Linda Hamilton as Chuck's mom on 'Chuck,' here are the 10 biggest stories -- five from movies and five from TV -- that had fans buzzing.


The 5 Biggest Movies Stories at Comic-Con

1. The 'Marvel' panel lives up to the hype.
By far the most anticipated panel of Comic-Con was that of Marvel Studios, which promoted a lineup of 'Captain America: The First Avenger' and 'Thor,' though it was widely expected that there would also be a "secret" presentation at the end announcing the cast of 2012's 'The Avengers.'

The first two panels alone were enough to make fanboys froth at the mouth: After a teaser trailer depicting Captain America (Chris Evans) in his suit hurling his shield toward the camera, director Joe Johnston showed a scene featuring Hugo Weaving as Red Skull -- despite the fact that the movie's only been shooting for a week. (The footage was so rough, it still had time codes at the bottom.) The 'Thor' trailer was longer, with a fantasy/historical/action feel, a strong romantic storyline between Thor and Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), and ... Hemsworth shirtless.

Then the big reveal. The screen went black, Samuel Jackson's voice narrated a trailer tease for 'The Avengers' as the title treatment appeared, and the cast came out on stage: Jackson (Nick Fury), Clark Gregg (Agent Coulson), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Chris Evans (Captain America), and the three previously missing pieces of the puzzle in Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Mark Ruffalo "reprising" (or more accurately, replacing Edward Norton in) the role of Bruce Banner/The Hulk, and Joss Whedon as the movie's director. Those people lucky enough to be in the room had never felt prouder to call themselves geeks.

2. 'Scott Pilgrim' screening wows the fans.
There'd been a lot of buzz around Edgar Wright's adaptation of the comic-book series 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,' and Universal had a huge presence at Comic-Con, including a Scott Pilgrim Experience which allowed fans to customize t-shirts or make flip books of themselves and their friends. (Note: We made a flip book ourselves, and we think it's hilarious.) The movie, which stars Michael Cera as a guy who has to defeat seven evil exes to win the girl of his dreams (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), had its premiere on Thursday night, and it proved to be quirky, unusual and fun, with highly stylized effects that mimic aspects of video games and comics. While it remains to be seen how the movie will fare with general audiences, the fans went crazy for it, and certainly there was no better place to see the movie than in a packed theater at Comic-Con. Fans who stuck around were treated to a special performance by the indie band Metric.

3. Han Solo and James Bond, together at last.
Jon Favreau, with two 'Iron Man' films under his belt, already has plenty of cred at Comic-Con; so when he came out to present the panel for his sci-fi Western 'Cowboys and Aliens,' there were enthusiastic cheers for him alone. Then he brought out the cast: Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell ... and, making his surprise Comic-Con debut, Harrison Ford, who was escorted by police officers and handcuffed in apparent reference to the man who, at a previous panel, had stabbed someone in the eye with a ballpoint pen (though it was later reported that the Ford stunt had actually been planned earlier, as a joke that he was being forced to appear against his will). The crowd exploded. Han Solo and James Bond -- plus Indiana Jones -- on a panel together? Madness!

4. 'Tron' footage and party takes fans back to the future.
Comic-Con has been a major showcase for 'Tron: Legacy' ever since the first trailer debuted there three years ago. As expected, the film, which opens in theaters this December, was highlighted both in a packed panel -- where eight minutes of footage was shown, including a scene in which Sam (Garrett Hedlund) is taken into the game and has his outfit put on him by four "Tron girls" -- and a buzzed-about party at Flynn's Arcade, which had been done up to look like an abandoned arcade and a futuristic nightclub, complete with people in skin-tight costumes who wandered through the crowds with vacant looks on their faces. (In attendance at the party were stars Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, James Frain and director Joe Kosinski.)

5. Warner Bros. panel shows new 'Harry Potter' footage, but 'Sucker Punch' gets the buzz.
Although 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows' is one of the biggest movies of the fall, there wasn't much hype surrounding that panel, with only one cast member (Tom Felton, who plays Draco Malfoy) in attendance. But the terrific extended footage from Part 1 of the film went over big -- the scenes, which showed a heightened intensity as the series draws to a close, included Harry and Ron fighting in the tent, a shot of Bill Nighy as Rufus Scrimgeour, a glimpse of the seven Harrys, and Hermione firing her wand -- and there's hope that at next year's Comic-Con, the full cast will appear to promote the final film.

Next came the 'Green Lantern' panel, and if fans were disappointed that the footage didn't show Green Lantern in his suit, Ryan Reynolds' charm more than made up for it. In what must have been the most endearing moment of this year's Comic-Con, the actor responded to a young fan's question about the oath by reciting it from memory ("In brightest day, in blackest night ..."), then growling out the end, "Beware my power ... Green Lantern's light!" while holding up the Green Lantern ring on his finger. He also signed a comic book for the fan, whose day, presumably, had just been made.

But the biggest buzz coming out of the Warner Bros. panel was for Zack Snyder's 'Sucker Punch,' a fantasy-action film with an all-female cast that includes Emily Browning, Vanessa Hudgens, Jamie Chung and Jena Malone. The footage from the movie, which is about a young woman (Browning) who attempts to escape from an insane asylum before she is lobotomized, looked stylish and explosive; but we can't describe it better than our friends at Cinematical, who tweeted, "OMG Sucker Punch is Tarantino meets Final Fantasy meets your most erotic fetish dream."

The 5 Biggest TV Stories at Comic-Con

1. Linda Hamilton is Mama Bartowski on 'Chuck.'
'Chuck' fans, you have your mother. Yep, after months of speculation the cast and crew revealed Hamilton's role on 'Chuck' and more about the upcoming season and its various guest stars -- the Old Spice guy (!) -- at their Comic-Con panel. Turns out Linda Hamilton called up series creator Josh Schwartz about the coveted role. Cool, huh?

2. 'Supernatural' stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki spill details on season 6.
One of The CW's most popular shows is sticking around past its original five-year plan and we sat down with the stars and creators to find out what's up with Sam and Dean.

3. 'The Walking Dead' have risen.
AMC's new zombie series has been generating a ton of buzz both at Comic-Con and in the overall TV world. At the convention zombies roamed around to the delight of the audience. We've got news in a roundup here and even more panel coverage here. The show is based on a Robert Kirkman-penned comic book series based in Los Angeles, but the series was filmed in Atlanta ... leaving one fan at the panel very angry.

4. 'Glee' tackles 'Rocky Horror.'
You may have heard of this little show called 'Glee.' Well, it's back for a second season, tackling Britney Spears episode centered on the scene-stealing cheerleader, Brittany. Plus, the kids are going to do 'Rocky Horror'! For more tidbits, including new romantic pairings, check out our panel coverage.

5. 'Dexter' debuts a killer season 5 trailer.
'Dexter' always seems to make quite the impression on everybody, not just the anti-hero's victims. This year, fans were treated to a very memorable season 5 trailer. We have the trailer and are so excited! What do you think, 'Dexter' fans?

Source: Moviefone

Over the years, whenever I've stopped by the Warners lot to interview Clint Eastwood, I've always been struck by how much his Spanish-style studio bungalow felt like a home away from home, down to the little parking space right by the front door. The whole domestic image is especially appropriate, since Eastwood has been making movies regularly at Warners since he directed "The Outlaw Josey Wales" there in 1976, when Gerald Ford was president, Harvey Weinstein was promoting rock concerts in Buffalo and some of Warners' top young executives were still in diapers.
Eastwood is just one of a host of filmmakers that have what you might call special relationships at the studio, which under the aegis of Warner Bros. Picture Group President Jeff Robinov has been especially aggressive in courting a new generation of gifted filmmakers.

The biggest payoff, of course, came this weekend with the release of Christopher Nolan's "Inception," which not only was the weekend's top-grossing film, making more than $60 million, but has created shock waves all across Hollywood, serving as a reminder to cautious studio bosses that a strikingly original film could compete at the height of the summer moviegoing season with all the usual sequels and remakes and other franchise fodder.

But would Warners have made "Inception," which cost $160 million to produce and even more to market, if Nolan hadn't earned the trust of Warners' top brass after making a string of well-received films at the studio, including the critically beloved "Insomnia" (bankrolled by Alcon Entertainment but distributed by Warners) as well as the mega-hits "The Dark Knight" and "Batman Begins"?

"I don't know if we would've made 'Inception' without already having the relationship with Chris," Robinov told me over the phone Monday. "But he is so compelling and so good in a room that we were willing to bet on him making 'Batman Begins' at a time when all he had made was 'Memento' and 'Insomnia.' And you could argue that we took an even bigger risk of betting on him with 'Batman Begins,' since we had so much riding on that film, which was an effort to reboot one of our biggest brands.

"But to make a studio successful, you always have to believe in talent and that often requires taking a certain leap of faith with filmmakers, which is easier to do if you've enjoyed a certain level of success together."

Warners is the studio most invested in filmmaker relationships. In addition to Nolan and Eastwood, it has longstanding relationships with Steven Soderbergh, who since 2000 has made all but one of his major studio films at Warners, and Zack Snyder, who has two upcoming films on the Warners slate after making "300" and "Watchmen" at the studio. Rob Reiner, whose "Flipped" is due out from Warners next month, hasn't made a film away from Warners since the mid-1990s.

But Warners isn't alone. Even though the age of the studio system, when actors and filmmakers were under long-term contracts to studios, is long over, most studios still have steadfast relationships with key filmmakers whose work often reflects the studio's vision of itself. Sony's Amy Pascal, who loves films about complicated romantic relationships, has enjoyed a close creative alliance with James Brooks, whose "Everything You've Got," is due out from Sony this fall.

Brooks hasn't made a film outside of Sony since 1987's "Broadcast News."
Universal, which has a particularly good track record at making irreverent comedies, has a close rapport with Judd Apatow, who has made all three of his films as a director at the studio.

Universal also has a strong relationship with Paul Greengrass, who has made all four of his U.S. studio films at Universal, including two of the studio's series of "Bourne" thrillers. Paramount has a close relationship with J.J. Abrams while Shawn Levy, one of the top comedy directors in the business, has made five of his last six films at 20th Century Fox. Fox, of course, is also the home of James Cameron, who has been there longer than even Rupert Murdoch, having made all his films (outside of "The Terminator" series) there since "Aliens" in 1986.

It's not even unusual for filmmakers to outlast their original studio patrons. "The Sorcerer's Apprentice," which flopped at the box office this weekend, was directed by Jon Turteltaub, who may not have a lot of critical cachet but definitely has Disney staying power.

While the studio has had a complete turnover in its executive ranks, Turteltaub is still alive and kicking, having made eight straight films at Disney (including the hit "National Treasure" films) dating back to 1993's "Cool Runnings."
Why do studios keep such close ties with filmmakers even after the executives who originally brought them in have been sent packing? Keep reading.

"Believe it or not, there is still such a thing as an institutional memory in Hollywood," says "Erin Brockovich" producer Michael Shamberg, who is producing Soderbergh's next Warners film, "Contagion," which shoots in the fall. "Most of the studios have either inherited or adapted a lot of the old studio practices.
Once a director has made a lot of money for a studio, they're eager to keep that director in the fold. That's just good business practice. And if you're a filmmaker, if all things are equal, you want to stay at the same place, where you have executives that you know and trust and are comfortable with."
It's no secret that Warners has the most top filmmakers in its fold because, unlike some studio bosses, Robinov actually recognizes that the true source of creativity on a film derives from the filmmaker, not meddling studio executives.
"We're just a filmmaker-driven studio," Robinov says. "It doesn't mean that it's always going to be easy or that things are always going to work out as we'd hoped. But every movie needs a strong vision and the people that have the most exciting and interesting and accessible vision possible are the filmmakers. So they are the ones we want to build a long-term relationship with."

After Nolan had struck pay dirt with "The Dark Knight," everyone in town was throwing juicy projects at the filmmaker's feet. "But Chris hadn't found anything that quite landed with him," recalls Robinov. "So he went back to working on 'Inception,' which he'd started seven or so years ago. When it was done, his agent, Dan Aloni, said that Chris wanted to offer it to us first, out of respect for the relationship."

In Hollywood, respect for the relationship is a two-way street, especially when the filmmaker has just directed one of the top-grossing films of all time. Robinov and Warners chief Alan Horn immediately read Nolan's script and met with the filmmaker. "We asked a lot of questions and he had answers for all of them," says Robinov. "We wanted to know whether people would be able to understand where they were--in terms of the different subconscious levels and dream states. But Chris knew exactly where he was going, narratively and digitally. We agreed on a budget and Alan greenlit the movie right there in the room."

In the relationship game, not every bet pays off. Insiders have predicted that Baz Luhrmann, after the failure of "Australia," may make his next film elsewhere after having directed all of his U.S.-made films at Fox. Warners has hedged its bets in the past, famously forcing Eastwood to find outside financing for films like "Mystic River" and "Million Dollar Baby" before the studio pitched in with part of the budget. Night Shyamalan was an integral part of the Disney family until then-production chief Nina Jacobsen told the filmmaker she had problems with his script for "Lady in the Water." Insulted, Shyamalan left the studio in a huff, taking the film to Warners, where it bombed.

It's easy for relationships to flourish when everything is going smoothly. The true test comes when a film tanks. Studios often blame the filmmaker while filmmakers often blame the studio's marketing efforts. So the real test of Warners' belief in its filmmakers doesn't come so much with Nolan, who has something of a Midas touch, but with a filmmaker like Soderbergh, who has delivered both hits (the "Oceans Eleven" series) and misses ("The Good German" and "The Informant!").

Referring to those last two films, Robinov says: "They weren't necessarily all that accessible, but they were really interesting to us on an artistic level. And if you want to send a message to the creative community that you're willing to try to do different things, then you actually have to try to do different things. That's the bet we make and it always starts with the filmmakers."

 

After eight months of swordfighting on the set of "Spartacus: Blood and Sand," star Andy Whitfield had a real battle to fight, with Stage 1 non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

So of course, when Zap2it caught up with Whitfield at Comic-Con in San Diego, our first question was about how he's feeling now that he's cancer-free.

"Amazing," he says immediately. "I feel better than ever, like, seriously, I feel like I'm 10 years younger. I had a good rest."

Whitfield is back in training for Season 2 of "Spartacus: Blood and Sand," which will begin shooting three months from now. Since he only had one month to prepare for Season 1, he's not concerned, despite the fact that he does 90% of his own stunts.

Taylor Momsen, eyes coated in thick rings of her trademark black eyeshadow, writhes and contorts on a table in a scene reminiscent of the Last Supper. She throws food, smashes glasses, and crawls off the table wearing little more than a leotard and a pair of clear heels.

The scene is from the just-released music video for a song called "Miss Nothing," but it has people saying a lot about the 16-year-old singer.

Momsen (most well known for playing Jenny Humphrey on TV's "Gossip Girl") takes obvious pleasure in shocking people with an aggressively sexual persona. But as the frontwoman for the Pretty Reckless, playing today at the West Palm Beach stop of the Vans Warped Tour punk rock festival, she insists she's just telling stories.

"It's the way I live, I grew up looking at rock stars. It's in my blood," Momsen says. "I think aggression scares people. But if you're scared, you're feeling something. Yeah, there's loud guitars and drums. The reaction, it's really kind of sad."

To Momsen (who will turn 17 on Monday), rock 'n' roll is rock 'n' roll, no matter how old she is.

"It's like we're living in the '60s again. Haven't we already all seen this? This has already happened." She sounds exasperated. "Scantily clad clothing? It's amazing that it's shocking again, scaring people now, again."

As for her public Twitter fight with celebrity gossip Perez Hilton, "That's just tabloids … People ask me about my life and try and create controversy and I'll say what I say."

If she's itching to get rid of a previous era's idea of 16-year-old girl behavior, she has a fonder feeling for that era's music. Momsen described the Pretty Reckless as "the only real rock band on this tour" and says they shun modern sounds almost completely, listening to Led Zeppelin and the Beatles on the bus.

"I'm trying to reinvent and bring back rock 'n' roll," she says. "I listen to the greats. I try to better myself."

The band's first full-length album, "Light Me Up," is set for release Aug. 31. She credits the chaos of Warped Tour – playing six days a week, at different times and stages every day – with allowing the band to find its musical zone.

"You sound different every day, and there's so much trying to adapt. It's a very punk, get-up-there-and-hope-you-can-hear-yourself kind of tour. If you think playing every day is hard, I don't know why you're in a band," she says. "I'm not a diva or a prima donna, I'm the opposite."

She doesn't mind all eyes on her in the "Miss Nothing" video, though.

"The song is telling an ambiguous story about a lover dying, and I'm depicting Mary Magdalene, and Jesus just died. It's about not being able to live without a lover. It's Mary Magdalene's last supper, it's my last supper, because I can't live," Momsen explains.

"But it's just a video," she says, and starts to laugh.

Entertainment Weekly's movie critic, Owen Gleiberman, lamented in his column that he feels like he is the only one who just "doesn't get" this week's No. 1 box office smash, the sci-fi action thriller 'Inception.' It's just not true, Owen. You're not alone in being dazzled by Christopher Nolan's special effects, plot filled with trickery and Marion Cotillard's soporific French accent, but still scratching your head and saying WTF?!?!

The WTF factor is going to be box office gold for 'Inception,' since moviegoers will be seeing this film once and then again and maybe again, to try to unravel the intricacies of the sometimes complicated plot twists.
"'Inception' is going to turn out to be like a cinematic rubik's cube -- audiences won't be able to put it down," says New York Daily News film critic Joe Neumaier.

Taken at face value, the plot is simple. Leonardo DiCaprio is able to enter other people's dreams and steal their thoughts. A fugitive from American law desperate to clear his name to return to his family, he embarks on a mission to plant rather than steal a thought in the mind of the heir to a large corporate conglomerate.

But it's not that simple at all. There's an angry dead wife who haunts Leo's dreams and a crackpot team of dream infiltrators, whose roles in the process are more confusing than the guys from 'Ocean's 11.' Then there's the entire concept of "inception," dreams and reality in general that would make Freud give himself a sedative.

Among Gleiberman's WTF questions were the following:

"When you're inside one dream level, what's happening, at the same moment, in the dream level above it? Does its significance vanish? Has it ceased to exist? Since various people are occupying the same dream, who's determining, at any given instant, what happens in that dream? Why does one person have more sway than the next? And why did everything, on all the dream levels, look like bits and pieces of the same action movie? What are the rules, and therefore the strategies?"

Each of these queries is entirely valid. But those questions exist for a reason, a business reason. Each question means a new conversation generated by the moviegoer about their confusion. That conversation can inevitably lead to someone else buying their own ticket to the movie to see what all the fuss is about (and prove that they are smart enough to answer these outlying questions).

"The WTF factor increases audiences' curiosity -- but it has to seem fun and not like work. 'Mulholland Drive' was a critical success and a limited release, but didn't have that 'fun' factor.' 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' did this art house-wise, and, of course 'The Matrix' did it on a mainstream level," Neumaier explained.

"The water cooler factor with 'Inception' is that people want to suss it out with their coworkers who saw it, and that makes the uninitiated curious about what all the fuss is. And that will help drive box office sales."

And it will also lead the original moviegoer back to the theater (because you just can't wait for the DVD -- these questions will be harder to answer on the small screen) leading to a high percentage of repeat ticket sales. The repeat business seems to be coming as a combination of the movie's puzzling plot coupled with its overall quality.

"The mind-bending puzzle movies certainly have a mixed track record. For every 'Sixth Sense' ($293 million a the box office), there's a 'Fight Club' ($37 million at the box office)," explained Box Office Mojo President Brandon Gray. "A better example is 'The Matrix.' The first 'Matrix' had a lot of repeat viewing and the second one did not. The second one tried to inject a lot of pseudo-philosophy and people ended up being turned off by it. It can swing both ways. It depends how satisfying the movie is in general. It can't just be confusing."

But 'Inception' seems to have hit that sweet spot of satisfying and yet confusing that draws moviegoers back again and again.

Now excuse us, we have to get in line (for the second time) for tonight's showing.

Like a lot of you we’ve spent most of the weekend thinking about one thing: Inception. You can see our attempt to explain what’s going on the movie here but before you can even begin to guess at director Christopher Nolan’s intentions or what happens after the movie’s mind-blowing final sequence, you’ll need a clear idea of all the levels of Inception.

With that in mind, we’ve put together a helpful visual aid. Here it is, an illustrated guide to the five levels of Inception:

SPOILER WARNING: What follows should only be viewed by people who have already seen Inception. It contains heavy, critical spoilers which will impact your viewing of the film. If you haven’t seen Inception yet, stop reading and don’t come back until you do.

- "It sounds strange but I only want to be like my friends, and they don't have millions to spend. I want to do what they do, so if they go to the movies, I go too. I want to have a normal life, even if it's not easy. Going to college and having a close family has kept me grounded".
- "I have so much money I don't know what to do with it. I got a laptop and a Toyota Prius, and that's the most expensive things I've bought".
- "I've realized I want to be an actress... for now".
- "It's amazing what my life has become There's times when I don't understand this happened to me. I've never been sure of wanting to do this, especially compared to Daniel and Rupert. I didn't know I wanted to be an actress, I was discovered out of nowhere. Just because it happened doesn't mean it's been the best thing for me".
- "It would've been stupid to not go to school. School keeps me in touch with reality. You can't be a good actress if you're crazy!".